Reuters: Iran has stayed the execution of a teenage boy convicted of murder for 10 days, Iran’s Students News Agency ISNA quoted his lawyer as saying on Wednesday. TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has stayed the execution of a teenage boy convicted of murder for 10 days, Iran’s Students News Agency ISNA quoted his lawyer as saying on Wednesday.
Sina Paymard, an 18-year-old boy convicted of killing a drug dealer at the age of 16, was scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, according to his lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Amnesty International had made an urgent appeal against the planned execution, saying that it would be violation of international law if carried out.
“The lawyer of Sina Paymard … said her client’s execution was stopped for the second time for 10 days,” ISNA reported.
Paymard, a musician and drug addict with a history of psychological problems, according to his lawyer, was arrested in 2004 after stabbing a drug dealer in a Tehran park.
He was set to be hanged in September last year. But, as a last request he was allowed to play the ney, a Middle Eastern flute, and his playing so moved the family of the victim that he was granted a last-minute reprieve, Amnesty said.
The family of the victim have said they will accept a payment equivalent to $160,000, allowing the sentence to be commuted, but Paymard’s family cannot raise sufficient funds.
“My client’s family have so far provided half the money… We are trying to provide the rest of it in time so Sina would be released,” Sotoudeh told ISNA.
Sotoudeh could not be reached by Reuters for comment.
Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, according to Amnesty. Since the beginning of 2007, at least 124 people have been put to death.
